Abstract

From the middle of the second century CE the relief scenery of theaters in Asia Minor — Nysa, Perge and Side — sees the appearance of a scene of the washing of the infant Dionysus by nymphs. The composition is characterized by consistent iconography. The inclusion of the scene in the composition of the narrative cycles, and the images of the figure of Hermes (in Nysa, Perge) and Zeus (in Side) depicted on neighboring plates make it possible to connect it with the myth of the birth of Dionysus from the thigh of Zeus and the upbringing of the god by the Nysean nymphs. Though the legend was well known, the first examples of the image of bathing the infant Dionysus only appear in Roman art at the turn of the first century BC — first century AD in the picturesque ornamentation and hoards from aristocratic houses of Rome and Campania, as well as in the relief decoration of sarcophagi. Scholarly literature has associated the appearance of this iconography with the establishment of the cult of Dionysus Hebon in Naples during the reign of Augustus. By the second century this scene had firmly established itself in the repertoire of the relief scenery of sarcophagi and decorative programs of theaters. The fourth century saw the appearance of its variations, where Dionysus was replaced by Achilles or Alexander the Great. The analysis of the artifacts points to the earlier origins of this scene, and this article attempts to investigate them. In addition, the authors uncover the reasons for referring to the plot in the context of the cultural environment of the Roman Empire, and identify the semantic aspects of the scene. As a result of the research, the authors have proposed a hypothesis about the Hellenistic prototypes of the image of the infant Dionysus and its connection with the concept of the onset of the “golden age” in Rome. The fusion of the images of the emperor and Dionysus, new aspects associated with the cult of nymphs, make it possible to interpret the bathing scene as a hint to the image of the “emperor-child”. In the context of culture and visual self-representation of the cities of Asia Minor, the presence of the bathing scene of Dionysus in decorative cycles among the plots of local legends, apparently, indicates the integration of local cults into the imperial mythologeme.